Rhode Island School of Design - Portfolio Yearbook (Providence, RI)

Page 7 text:

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT Courtesy of the Providence Sunday Journal TO THE CLASS OF 1948 In all the past historic years since the founding of this School no class has faced such opportunities as the Class of 1948. At no time in the history of the School has a class seen and benefited by the educational opportunities which have been yours. In every department you have had at your disposal better facilities, better instructors to guide and advise you. Your classmates have come from a wider geographic range, and with us all, you have shared a better Library and a better Museum. All of this has been yours, at your request, as it were, for you chose to come to this institution. All that has been yours has been given gladly but not without sacrifice. It has cost time and it has cost money. For this many of you are indebted to your national or state government, many others to your parents. All of you have shared the opportunity because of the enlightened founders and many friends whose unlimited generosity has given our nation this great School. Today in this still unsettled world, there is a call for leadership from all quarters. We believe that you are prepared to take your place. You will do so for you have a service to render. In this you have no choice, for you have a moral obligation to self, family, School and nation to make the most of the opportunity which has been yours. The world needs men and women with vision and courage. We look to you to give your share.

Page 9 text:

A MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN Courtesy of the Providence Sunday Journal TO THE CLASS OF 1948 I have been asked to write a message of farewell to the graduation Class of 1948. This is, of course, an impossible assignment for when you receive a degree it does not mean that your connection with the School of Design is severed. The School has become a part of you and you a part of the School. A marriage has been consummated, a marriage where-in divorce is inconceivable. A bond has been established, a bond of the spirit best described and understood in name to which this Institution is dedicated—Design, the miraculous talisman which we all share. It would be foolhardy to predict that after graduation countless, munificent oppor- tunities will suddenly be available for your selection. The realist knows all too well that the world is restless and wary. Today opportunities must be made and not found, but is not creation the prime attribute of all designers? The harried world has perhaps never been in more desperate need of those, who like you, now possess the pdwer to create and to build rather than to destroy. Our destiny is to join and not to separate—to serve together by evoking that mutual magic—Design.